‘Tone deaf’ – Fianna Fáil face backlash for line up of Women’s Health Conference

26 comments
  1. Oh for fuck sake.

    That article reads like someone’s twitter rant.

    A complaint was that the women looked “Too wealthy” in the poster.
    And that was showing a lack of diversity.

  2. Fianna Fáil deserves backlash for a great many things. This isn’t one.

    Exactly what level of ‘diversity’ do thise referenced in the article think is warranted in this instance? 50% of the line up?

    Does every interest group that may conceivably exist need representation here?

  3. The trans women bit annoys me. Trans women aren’t going to have nearly the same experiences and needs as biological women

    They absolutely need their voices heard but I’m concerned about it diluting the focus of the event

  4. I always find complaints about the lack of “people of colour” in Irish affairs a bit strange. I can understand to an extent in countries like the US where there is a lot of diversity but in the 2016 census, only 5% of people were black, Asian or “other” ethnicity.

  5. There are people who would rather a conference had less qualified opinions on very improved topics just for appearances sake. There is clearly a lot of good behind this but it’ll never be enough for some people.

  6. They deserve it for the fuss they kicked up about the national women’s council rally AND for the fact that the poster claimed to be ‘reaching for equality’ though it looked like a gathering of The Stepford Wives

    On any other day these same women will be talking about unity and the plight of female travellers and refugees etc

    They all have more representation than the women AND men who are homeless, in prison, below the poverty line, living in direct provision etc etc etc

    There’s always some women not being represented so don’t pretend that your group is somehow different and represents all women, no group does

  7. Oh fuck off, this is a very important conference as conditions like endometriosis are understudied and take an age to diagnose etc.

    And how does Ms Flynn know these people are wealthy?

  8. There is a difference between “trans-women” and “women”…I can’t understand how people try and say there isn’t.

    Not saying trans people are bad or anything but they are not the same as people born biologically as either sex.

    Pandering to nonsense political correctness.

  9. This is not a real story. Journalists know they can get a reaction from people by reporting by reporting one ridiculous, over the top reaction. In this case from a Senator saying there should have been a minority on the poster.

    I know we all enjoy getting outraged by this absurd political correctness but we should just ignore it. I think that is the best way to deal with it.

  10. Why do some insist upon importing incongruent elements of US politics into Ireland? There aren’t any similarities between US politics and Irish politics.

  11. too many people here beating around the bush.

    This american style identity politics/culture war bullshit needs to be stamped out ASAP. Ireland is overwhelmingly white. Nobody in Nigeria complains that there isn’t white/latino/asian representation. This is literally a made up “first world” problem by americanised leftists who just want to be angry about something all the time. Can a country not be white anymore?

  12. Christ on a bike.

    A lot of you haven’t actually bothered to check the line-up and it shows. This isn’t an academic confet nce BY ANY STRETCH. This is a talking shop.

    First off, Sen. Chambers evidence of diversity is “We have 1 autistic person, 1 disabled person and lots of people of different sizes”, which is absolutely tone deaf. There’s a whole spectrum of neuro divergence and of disability but only one person from each group? Riiiight.

    Then there’s the line up…

    1. Rosanna Davidson
    2. Norah Casey (broadcaster)
    3. Stephanie Preissner (writer, actress, influencer)
    4. Aoibhinn Ní Shuilleabhain (former Rose of Tralee, academic and broadcaster, billed as Dr. despite her Ph.D being in Physics)
    5. Dr. Ciara Kelly (broadcaster, former GP)
    6. Ciara Phelan (political correspondent)

    So like… Yeah… I can’t fault Senator Flynn’s criticisms. Bar Ciara Phelan (who I don’t know much about), those are all wealthy women.

    And for a sub likes to spout on about how racism isn’t a problem in this country, there’s quite a lot of you that are taking umbridge with the suggestion that there’s something wrong with an exclusively white and Irish panel.

  13. Some very accomplished, competent, and successful women in that line-up. I fail to see the issue?

  14. I do find it kind of annoying in this country that any kind of diversity or inclusion committee is always a group of white women telling everyone else how diverse they’re not being.

    Women’s Health though? I honestly don’t see the issue here.

  15. >poster for the event was published on Tuesday for not including any women of colour or representatives of minority backgrounds or disability groups as panelists.

    How do they know the poster didn’t feature women from minority backgrounds or with disabilities? not all disabilities are visible on the surface and one of the women could have been from the Traveller community, or a trans woman

  16. I don’t like fianna fáil but to be fair after reading the article some of the criticism comes across as point scoring senator Flynn Won’t speak at the conference but is she not a representative of the traveling community is that not her job ?

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